Trucking firms offer up to $8,000 bonus and other deals to lure drivers

A USA TODAY investigation finds America’s retail giants have spent a decade ignoring signs of labor abuse in their supply chains, sometimes fighting government efforts to crack down, even as thousands of truckers were driven into debt and poverty.
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Big rigs stack up at the Flying J Truck Stop along Interstate 70 near the small Colorado plains community of Limon.(Photo: 2009 photo by David Zalubowski, AP)

•Summit Trucking of Clarksville, Ind., pledges drivers can get home every other day.

Almost 400,000 people nationwide obtain commercial driver licenses every year. But the nomadic life and low pay fuels constant turnover. Trucking executives warn the country is desperately short of drivers to run the nation's fleet of 4 million heavy freight trucks, known as Class 8 vehicles.

While the American Trucking Association, a trade group near Washington, says truck lines immediately need 50,000 more drivers, an owner-operator group contends plenty of drivers are available. In short supply is freight.

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Jefferson Graham reports on Cargomatic, the "Uber for truckers" which lets them know about new shipments to fill extra space on their rigs, all from an app. #TalkingTech.
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Too many trucks and truck lines have caused the big truck companies to actively turn over the staff of drivers in a bid to raise profit by recruiting novice drivers at lower compensation, said Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, an organization in Grain Valley, Mo., representing about 160,000 owner-operators.

“People talk about the driver shortage. What they're really talking about is turnover,” Spencer said. "It’s a really tough job. You work hard and you work a lot. There's lots and lots of personal sacrifice. People get tired of the stress and leave."

Is better pay the answer?

Bob Costello, chief economist of the American Trucking Association, said truck lines need to raise compensation for drivers, though the shortage is real. Many drivers are in their 50s and 60s. As they retire the shortage could exceed 174,000 drivers in seven years if the recruiting efforts fall short, ATA predicts.

"Unless steps are taken to make it easier for individuals to pursue careers in trucking, demand for drivers will continue to outstrip supply — eventually even leading to supply chain disruptions," Costello warned.

Annual compensation among the country's 3.5 million Class 8 drivers averages about $50,000 to $60,000 — the same level as in the early 1980s.

'Ain't no shortage'

“There ain’t no shortage of drivers,” said Amy Key, 44, who travels with husband Randy of Key & Key Trucking of Malvern, Ark. “Everyone wants to be a truck driver. They think there’s so much money in it.”

Yet hundreds of truck lines have ramped up recruiting staffs and promised touches especially appealing to professional drivers.

“A lot of people don’t know that if a company has to bribe you to work for them something’s wrong,” said Annette Sammis, 55, of Oak Ridge, Tenn., a driver for Fraley and Schilling truck line of Rushville, Ind.

Sammis, a professional driver since 2008, said the driver turnover traces to low pay, a nomadic lifestyle and privacy concerns, including cameras in the cab monitoring every move and the mandatory use, beginning Dec. 18, of electronic log devices known as ELDs.

By monitoring the vehicle's operating time, many drivers fear, ELD will force them to curb their actual driving time to the legal limit of 11 hours per day. Truck executives expect more than 10% of owner-operators will leave the business once ELDs begin to restrict income.

Watching the industry's turmoil from the cab of his milk tanker is Woodson.

After the 2008 recession wiped out bridge construction work, Woodson, 51, a long-time New Yorker, found his way to Williams Dairy Trucking of Baxley, Ga. Lately he has noticed the ads promising lofty bonuses for truck drivers.

He's not ready to jump to a new employer.

“Most truck drivers want to be close to home. Most have families,” Woodson said. “They can be out on the road a month at a time. I don't want to live like that.’’